November 2013 , Page 59

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Book Review: Whiskey Island

Whiskey Island

By Les Roberts
Gray & Company (2012)

Many county officials in Greater Cleveland — including a judge or two — have been charged with such federal crimes as bribery and money laundering and violating the public trust; some have been convicted, some still await trial, a few await sentencing. Les Roberts fictionalizes these events in Whiskey Island, his 14th novel featuring private investigator Milan Jacovich (MY-lan YOCK-o-vich).

Roberts’ Jacovich novels, set in Cleveland, use local references in most of the titles. Whiskey Island is a peninsula on the Near West Side of Cleveland west of where the Cuyahoga River enters Lake Erie. It once was home to a distillery and now has a marina, a park, and at least one bar.

Roberts doesn’t mention the Cuyahoga River catching fire, but in this book the author doesn’t treat his adopted home town very well. The city’s image — already smudged for various reasons — does not emerge as very nice.

In earlier Jacovich novels,

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